Murder trial of San Angelo businessman examines the forces of falling

GUNNISON, Colo. — Testimony in the trial of Frederick Mueller took a turn for the technical Thursday.

State prosecutors continued to call witnesses, who testified on matters including laser technology used to measure crime scenes, biomechanics and the setting up of 3D scans of the alleged crime scene.

Leslie Mueller, Frederick Mueller's first wife, died in 2008 near the couple's vacation home in Lake City, about 55 miles south of Gunnison. Frederick Mueller is charged with murder in her death.

Frederick Mueller has said his wife fell off a cliffside trail to her death May 3, 2008. Her body was found in Cottonwood Creek, her head submerged beneath a log.

Frederick Mueller was arrested in San Angelo last February and has remained in Gunnison County Jail since his extradition. His trial started last week.

Those who testified Thursday included Dr. David Dainty, an expert in biomechanics, which he described as a science that looks at how forces affect the human body.

Like state forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Benziger, Dainty was told Mueller's story: that his wife was thrown off balance by her dog and fell over a cliff, landing on her head and shoulders on a rock, then traveling downstream. Dainty said her injuries were inconsistent with those details.

Dainty agreed with Benziger that a person who fell about 15 feet onto a granite rock would sustain more severe injuries than a "goose-egg bump" on her forehead.

Using photos of the scene admitted into evidence, as well as reference points from the state, Dainty calculated that a body would take 1.025 seconds to fall the 16.9 feet from the "takeoff point" on the ledge near where she was posing with her dog to the "landing spot." The body would travel at 22.5 mph.

Mandelski asked if there is a minimal vertical speed at which broken bones typically begin. Dainty said it depends on bone density and configuration of impact, but there is a high probability of serious injury at 9 mph and a probability of injury or head fractures at 4 mph. A vertical speed of 7 to 10 mph results in a high probability of foot fractures.

In cross-examination, Dainty said a fall on a slope would result in a different impact.

Defense attorney Andres Sanchez walked the witness through calculations depicting a different set of circumstances — one in which someone stumbled from Point A to Point B, which was closer to the creek, fell over and landed on their feet on an area that would propel them into the water. He also noted a landing spot that was different from the one the state calculated. At the end of his calculations, he asked if people could drop a considerable amount more than 10.64 feet without sustaining injuries.

"Yes," Dainty said. " … And it depends what you mean by considerable."